


A Different Path

by Icie



Series: OiSuga Week challenges [2]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: M/M, Mention of underage drinking, Tattoos, University AU, mention of sports injury, teacher/student au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-07
Updated: 2015-01-07
Packaged: 2018-03-06 12:37:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3134780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Icie/pseuds/Icie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Student/teacher university au. </p><p>Sugawara is Oikawa's student and the tattoo that peeks out from his shirt is distracting.</p><p>Written for day 2 of OiSuga week: University.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Different Path

Sugawara's tattoos are the worst of Oikawa's problems. One peeks out from underneath his collar and another from the hem of the long sleeved t-shirts he always wears. Keeping them covered apart from that seems pointless but Sugawara seems happy enough with them out of view. He seems happy enough with everything. Except, Oikawa uses similar expressions himself, and he's not convinced.

He shuts down the powerpoint on the overhead projector and his students immediately shuffle notes away into bags and start chatting. First years. Well, most of them. Sugawara isn't, he's taking it as an interest paper.

"Don't forget: your assignments are due on Monday and I don't give extensions," Oikawa says with a smile to the general muttering of his class. He does give extensions, just not for begging which any of them with sense would understand. Sugawara waves at him as he exits and Oikawa makes himself busy with his desk. His smile is so honest. Eight years taking this class and this is the first time Oikawa bothered to find out a student's name of his own accord.

Another day, another class.

Oikawa makes himself busy with his lecture notes, shutting down and logging off the university system as the last of the students trickle out. When he looks up, the lecture theatre is empty. He prefers it that way when he leaves. That way, no one notices him walk.

Hajime yelled at him, years ago, when he ruined his knee. Like everyone didn't see it coming. He would never manage as a pro and this way at least he has an excuse. Or that's the line he gave Hajime until he made it clear he knew Oikawa was full of crap. He misses volleyball sometimes. All the time. Misses having a team, mostly. _You have workmates, treat them like your team_ , Hajime told him, and he could see that, if he had a workplace like Hajime's filled with cops and team bonding. Here, he has friends but they're not a team.

Oikawa looks up, and starts. "Sugawara-san, can I help you?"

Sugawara straightens up from his position bent over his regular seat, looking underneath it. "I thought you said you didn't learn students names?" Sugawara asks back instead of answering. He remembered that speech - interesting.

Oikawa sighs like he's suffering a great injustice at maintaining any kind of bond with his students. "Sometimes they manage to get through."

"I see." He sounds amused and Oikawa finds himself smiling a little too genuinely in return. "I forgot my pen," he holds up the implement in question, "why are you still here?"

"Suga-kun," he'd love to call Sugawara something even less formal, but he is his teacher and he's gotten used to certain levels of formality that come with that, so _Suga-kun_ it is, "don't you know it's rude to ask about a professor's business?"

Shock runs across Sugawara's face for an instant before it's gone. "I'm sorry, I thought," and then he's blushing, just a little but Oikawa spends a lot of time reading people and too much time looking at Sugawara as well, "I didn't mean to intrude."

"Don't be stupid, Suga-kun. Old people make jokes, too." Barely in his thirties isn't old, but Sugawara must be barely in his twenties, so he must seem ancient.

Sugawara's mouth twitches into a smile again. "I see, so that's an old person joke. I'll take better note in future."

They hover, Oikawa behind the lecture podium and Sugawara halfway down the stairs of the theatre. "Aren't you leaving?" Sugawara asks.

"I was about to, when you came back and distracted me."

"I'm sorry." Does he always say sorry? "I didn't think anyone would be held up by their student getting a pen."

"Well, you know now," Oikawa says with a shrug.

"Um," Sugawara says and Oikawa studies his face, _sorry_ comes natrually from Sugawara, _um_ less so. His Adam's apple bobs as he swallows and Oikawa's eyes dart to the curled petal that peeks out from his shirt. "I heard you used to play volleyball?"

His blood runs cold and he can feel his smile turn fake. "I did." Of all the students he could take notice of, he manages to pick a volleyball player. Or, he assumes Sugawara plays. "Do you?" he asks to check.

"I used to," Suga ducks his eyes to tuck his pen into his bag. "I wanted to try out for the university team but realised I didn't have enough time."

At least that's something. "You manage your time well." Oikawa tucks the last of his papers away into his own bag, Sugawara isn't the only one who has an easier time keeping a level voice without eye contact. It's true though, he's always the first to complete his work.

A laugh - Sugawara's moved closer, probably so he can pretend this conversation isn't riddled with awkwardness. "I don't think so, I feel like I should have fought for it."

That gets a laugh with about as much humour as Sugawara's out of Oikawa. "Suga-kun, fighting for things doesn't mean you won't still lose in the end." Perhaps not a message a teacher should give his student, but then they're not talking about politics right now so Sugawara can hardly claim Oikawa teaches poorly.

"You can't get anywhere if you don't try."

"True enough, Suga-kun," he says but Sugawara wasn't quite done and he speaks over him like he's forcing his words out despite his better judgement.

"So I wanted to know if you would like to get a cup of coffee?"

Thrown off balance, Oikawa says, "Will I get to see your tattoos if I do?" before he can think better of it.

Suga beams a proper smile and hooks a finger into the collar of his t-shirt and pulls it aside to reveal the full flower - it's an orange lily, beautifully detailed - and a line of cherry blossom petals following it, he must have a full sleeve. "I thought I saw you looking at them."

"At what I could see," Oikawa shoots back with a touch of belligerence.

"Looking at what you could see of them," Sugawara repeats.

\----

After a couple of rounds of back and forth, where Oikawa pointed out that wearing long sleeves defeats the purpose of Suga's tattoos and Suga points out that Oikawa wouldn't be so curious if he saw them right away, they managed to make their way to a bustling coffee house half way towards Oikawa's apartment, because he's nothing if not forward thinking. If Suga notices his stiff walk from his knee, he shows enough sense not to mention it.

Their conversation remains light. They talk about Oikawa's course and how Suga finds it, Suga's other courses, Oikawa's projects and what Suga plans to do after he finishes his degree. Underneath it though, something isn't quite right.

"You're still thinking about volleyball, aren't you?" Suga jerks upright and nearly knocks over his coffee while he's at it. Definitely thinking about volleyball then.

"It was a big part of my life, and my old team made nationals this year."

Oikawa whistles, earning him a few irritated looks from the other customers. "Impressive, Suga-kun. You should be proud of them. Did you play with any of them?"

Suga nods and forces a laugh. "The first years, they were always intense. I wanted to go to their game, but I was here and studying."

"So responsible!" he says and Suga's eyes go wide. Oikawa understands. If thinking about their match that he missed would distract Suga from their conversation, it must mean even more to him than he realises, and he hasn't had anyone to point out that it was the right choice. "You're a pretty impressive guy, Suga-kun."

"It," Suga hesitates. "It might not mean as much, but I think you're impressive, too."

"Of course you do," Oikawa scoffs though his stomach tightens. "I'm your handsome young professor teaching you about the world. Everything about me is impressive."

Fake as he knows he sounds, Suga seems to understand. "I thought you said you were old before."

Why didn't he talk to Suga sooner?

"Well, you know us old people, we forget things so quickly," he says with a wave of his hand and Suga laughs properly again.

"So senility has set in, I was wondering about that lecture you spent on skirt length in politics. I suppose I'll have to go through and question everything you taught all over again." Suga sighs theatrically. "And here I was enjoying a topic that interests me."

"I teach critical thinking, Suga-kun. You should have worked out that applying it to the things I say is important."

"I have been thinking about one of the things you said," Suga says, leaning back in his chair, seemingly perfectly relaxed. It's calculated, he thinks. Hard to say for sure but it could be for effect. Oikawa raises an eyebrow. "Well, asked, really. About getting to see my tattoos?"

"Oh?" Oikawa asks - as much as someone can ask with _oh?_.

"There are some rumours about you flirting with students. But you've never made a move."

"Have you watched me close enough to be sure of that?"

Suga doesn't address his question, which is answer enough. "You like flirting more than you like people, don't you?"

Oikawa hums as he considers, willing himself to remain calm. What he likes about Suga is he has a keen eye for this kind of thing. But it's also a problem. "Most of the time."

"You never flirted with me."

Oikawa falters and forces himself to cover his discomfort with a smile rather than sipping his drink. "Until today," he replies, knowing he's pushing his luck.

But Suga shakes his head. "No, I don't think you were. I think you just like me."

"Suga-kun, that's what you do with people that you like. So don't you think that you should agree with me if I say I was?" They could have met on the volleyball court, if things were different. If Oikawa didn't have a decade on Suga. If he still played. Ifs and buts don't change anything though, and so he's sitting across from his student, with a lovely smile and tattoos up his arm, asserting that Oikawa likes him but hasn't flirted with him. And he's right.

"No, I think I should ask you out for coffee again."

\----

Coffee turns into drinks and Oikawa making jokes about cradle robbing after Suga turns pinks and steps back from the counter when Oikawa pays for their alcohol. Outside the store, he admitted his birthday isn't until next month.

"You're still a teenager, Kou-chan," he teased and Suga took the remarkably adult route of shrugging and reminding Oikawa that he already knew they have an age gap, rather than protesting about being able to drink legally in a month. One of the reasons Oikawa likes this boy.

As it happens, Suga works well as a companion for marking papers beside. He's quiet, mostly, and when he does interrupt Oikawa's flow it's always with an interesting question relating to Oikawa's views on a topic. He could get accused of favouritism, but Suga is one student out of hundreds and he was pulling off easy As before this started.

"You know, Kou-chan," he started using that name because of Suga's age and kept using it because, at heart, Oikawa is an annoying asshole and Suga twitches every time, "you still haven't let me see your tattoos."

Moving slow seemed like the thing to do. Though, from gentle prying into Suga's past social life, Oikawa knows he isn't Suga's first boyfriend, or even his fifth. Close with his old volleyball team didn't really cover it. Still, half clothed handjobs don't show much depth in their relationship, not when he's curious about those flowers. He's seen the whole flower that inches over Suga's wrist when he was running low on clean shirts and had to wear one with shorter sleeves. It's a bird of paradise, just as clear and detailed as the lily on his shoulder. Suga must have spent a fortune to get them.

"I was starting to think you didn't like them any more," Suga says, amused.

"Showing them to people could have special sentiment! I didn't want to intrude, you know how terribly respectful I am." He doesn't finish the sentence before Suga laughs.

"Of course, because only the most respectful people would put their hand down my pants."

"Absolutely, maybe it's because you haven't spent enough time studying other cultures yet, Kou-chan, but it's a near universal sign of respect."

Suga's smile softens and Oikawa's heart skips. Suga is easily as pretty as he is, and in the current, soft light he's probably more. "They are special to me."

"So, can I see?" Asking rather than demanding or cajoling Suga into taking his shirt off pains him but he can just hear Hajime snorting in the back of his mind if he tried to pull anything like that on a nineteen year old. Over three decades of experiences and he still has his childhood friend as his conscience.

"Since you asked nicely." Tension lifts from Oikawa's shoulders. Which is embarrassing really, that he'd get nervous about whether or not his student would show him his bare arm. Suga pulls off his shirt and tucks it on his lap.

Ink covers from where his shoulder curves into his neck, down to his wrist with the bird of paradise. All flowers in the same carefully intricate style. Oikawa can't place all of them but he knows enough to understand that they are all accurate to their physical counterparts. Suga flushes as Oikawa takes his hand so he can twist to see the underside of his arm.

"Some of them aren't coloured yet, it's a big piece so I had to wait between sessions and I haven't been home to fill them in."

Oikawa picks out a few of them where Suga's natural skin colour comes through - a few cherry blossoms up by the curve of his shoulder and a daisy that sits over his elbow. Even with only line, they're still beautiful.

"Fairly gutsy, getting tattoos like these at your age," he says, still bent over them, tracing the odd petal.

"My grandma liked flowers, and she always laughed at the stigma around tattoos. She said she would have gotten ink from her head to her toes if she wasn't wrinkly by the time she realised she could." Suga shrugs and Oikawa holds his arm still by the elbow as he turns it over. "These are a bit of her memory." Oikawa can tell Suga is blushing but doesn't look up to confirm. Talking like this would make Oikawa uncomfortable, and he has a lot in common with Suga.

"They're very pretty, just like the rest of you," Oikawa says and places Suga's hand back down on his lap.

Suga tries not to laugh but his effort is futile, he really should give up on controlling himself in the wake of Oikawa's tremendous wit.

"I know you still have an assignment to do, Kou-chan. So you should get that arm to work."

Suga sighs but picks up his pen again anyway. "You would be more convincing if you weren't the reason I stopped in the first place, Tooru."

They settle back down into the rhythm of their work, but Suga leaves his shirt off and occasionally Oikawa looks over to admire him.


End file.
